What were you doing on Dec. 15? Holiday shopping? A company party, perhaps? Maybe you were among those lining up to see one of the first weekend showings of “Les Miserables.”

The Akron Zips were très misérables on that afternoon. They lost a basketball game to the Detroit Titans, 80-73, on the road at Calihan Hall. That defeat dropped Akron to 4-4 overall. This was a team constructed to rampage through the Mid-American Conference and, if necessary, to draw the league’s first NCAA Tournament at-large berth since before the turn of the century. But neither of those outcomes seemed likely after the Detroit loss.

Since the buzzer sounded to end that game, 73½ days have passed. Akron did not lose once along the way. Now 22-4 overall, the Zips have won 18 consecutive games, including all 12 against conference opponents. The streak has led them to the program’s first-ever national ranking, at No. 24 in the USA Today coaches poll.

The Zips have four MAC games remaining, including an extremely imposing rematch Wednesday on the road against defending MAC Tournament champion Ohio, which stands second in the conference with an 11-1 record. If Akron somehow wins them all, it will finish with the first perfect MAC record in 55 years

“That wasn’t really a goal,” said Zeke Marshall, the Zips’ star center. “We’re just playing and giving it our best every day, and that is a result of our hard work. We expect we’ll continue to win and go far in the postseason. With that goal in mind, it comes on to where we go out every day on the court and work as hard as we can.

“Everyone saw what OU did last year, and now we want that -- and we want more than what they got. Coach is telling us we need to do this and this, and we do that. Because no one wants to sit at home watching another MAC team in the NCAAs.”

It is intriguing that the Zips’ streak would carry them down the road to Athens, because a year ago it was a 64-63 loss to Ohio U. in the MAC Tournament final that cost them an NCAA Tournament bid, which the Bobcats then spent wisely on wins over Michigan, South Florida and a dazzling near-miss in the Sweet 16 against national power North Carolina.

If the Zips are to make history of a sort, they’d prefer it be similar to what the 2011-12 Ohio Bobcats achieved rather than what Miami (Ohio) accomplished in 1957-58.

“One thing I’ll tell you, I didn’t know whether anybody’s done it or not until you just said it,” Akron coach Keith Dambrot told Sporting News. “A lot of times if the coach doesn’t pay attention to that, the guys don’t. Our goal is to make the next step. We know how hard it is to get to the NCAA Tournament to begin with, and we want to win in it.

“We feel like this team is probably built a little better to win than any team we’ve had.”

— A shooter (Brian Walsh) and a point guard (Alex Abreu) who can stitch it all together.

— A viable bench where five players average double-figure minutes, including three who’ve made at least 25 3-pointers and a 6-11 center (Pat Forsythe) who, when replacing Marshall, allows the Zips to remain relatively constant in form.

It’s all there. And the Zips appear intent on not wasting it. Dambrot said this team has the best chemistry of any Akron team he has coached. The players agree.

“It’s a more collective unit. Everybody has a common goal,” Marshall said. “There are not a lot of agendas going on. There’s a lot of collective movement toward that goal, and that’s getting to the postseason and moving on. To do that, everybody has to be moving toward that same goal. Everyone wants to win. Everyone wants that goal, so they’re willing to do that sacrifice, do what it takes, shoot extra, listen to coach more.

“I wouldn’t say it was missing last year, but it’s more refined. Last year, instead of one person having a small agenda, it might be three that have a small agenda. It’s all positive at this point.

“There always are some bumps and bruises along the road. This year, there are less of them.”

Unfortunately for the Zips, they have no reason to believe they will be invited to the NCAA Tournament if they fail to win their league’s automatic bid. They are 49th in the RPI rankings. They are 1-2 against the RPI top 50, 3-3 against the top 100.

“For us, if God forbid we don’t win the championship game, a lot of people don’t know that,” Dambrot said. “Especially with the way it transpired with the compliance error. ... It wasn’t anything those kids deserved. I’m not making excuses, because that’s part of the game.

“But when you’re fighting to get an at-large bid, people need to know that stuff.”

This is why it’s best for Akron to leave the Selection Committee no choice. Win the automatic bid, and it’s just a question of whether the Zips will be properly seeded. That puts a lot of pressure on those final games, but for now they have played “care-free,” as Marshall said.

“Our regular season is our stepping stone to get to where we want to go. Our goal wasn’t to win the regular season,” Marshall said. “That’s a secondary goal.

“We’re playing hard and doing well, and this just happened. We were just going out playing hard every day and we were just winning. We’re just going to continue playing as hard as we can. If we lose, we lose. But how we’re playing right now I don’t think we’re going to lose. We’re too hungry.”